Dr. Olusegun Mimiko

A new beginning in Ondo State by Rotimi Fasan, Vanguard

The April elections are around the corner and the politicians have been mounting the soapbox from one place to another, much in the manner of the Biblical devil, looking for whom to devour. Well, it might sound grossly uncharitable to compare our politicians, many of them our brothers and sisters- fathers, mothers, uncles and aunties, to the devil. But when you remember how political promises are made and soon after discarded like a bad habit, or how uncustomary are the visits you have been getting from them in these few weeks, then you may begin to understand why it may not be too out of place to compare our politicians to the devil. If not in reality then at least in metaphoric terms. Or when was the last time you saw that councilor or LG Chairman you voted into office three/four years ago? To what extent have they discharged their official responsibilities not to mention campaign promises?

There is something to be said about politicians, particularly those who have had and blown the opportunities to make a change in the lives our people- there is something to be said about them that cannot be altogether flattering. But we cannot dwell on the past. Now is the time for you to exercise that power you have as the true sovereign. Now, you have the opportunity, which comes once in every four years, to either revalidate or tear to shreds those mandates that you handed, in trust, to some people several years ago. People you’re now seeing for the first time since they got your mandate. You have, again, the chance to assess others coming to your door step for the first time to seek your support to rule over you. Do they have what it takes to rule over you? Are they of the right pedigree? Having what it takes to rule over a sophisticated people as the people of Ondo State is not about possessing a war chest of money, earned or stolen. It is not about being the child of some chief or the sponsored candidate of some traditional ruler.

It is about having the interest of the people at heart. How many of those that have visited you in the last few weeks truly see the need to raise Ondo State from its present backwater status to the land of great wealth and abundance that its human and material endowments entitle it to be? How can it be explained that the Ondo province of the 1950s is still, in terms of material development, only slightly different from the status that it had half a century ago? How explain that there are fewer businesses, private or otherwise, than there were some years back able to provide employment for the army of jobless graduates in the State? That big towns like Ondo, Owo or, even Akure, survive on cocoa farming, sawmilling and fuel station management aside subsistence farming? These, certainly, are not high employer businesses. But then, they are the only available avenues of actualization open to the sons and daughters of a Sunshine State whose sun seems permanently on the eclipse.

The issues confronting Ondo State today are legion and they are issues which anybody seeking the votes of the people must be ready to confront, in truth and in deed. It is not a matter of where you come from, the people of Ondo State must be clear-eyed about those they give their mandate to this time around.
Any one without anything beyond the platitudinous claim of bringing development to the State or spreading the ‘dividends of democracy’ without showing a credible blueprint of how this would be achieved does not deserve the votes of the people. So does he deserve to be sent out of office, anyone not able to give a good account of what he did, while in office, to jumpstart the industrial development of Ondo State in a manner that matches its human capital with its material resources.

Matters like these are some of the issues that should be of concern to the people of Ondo in the run-up to the April elections. Personally, I see the need for a change of guard in Ondo State. The PDP government in the State has been less than satisfactory. About time the people are given the chance to test other options. The devil you know is far less to be preferred to the angel that may not be given a chance. The Labour Party candidate, Olusegun Mimiko, deserves his chance with history.

His long years in grassroots politics recommends him for the position he seeks. And he would be coming to the office of governor well cooked having been commissioner, Secretary to the State government and a federal minister. Should he fail to live to expectation, at least, all would be assured he has been tried. But not to give him that chance would amount to shortchanging the people. Nor would the sort of violence that has been unleashed on the State be the answer to the task ahead.

Now is the time to speak out. The people of Ondo State need to be helped by enlightened members of the society to reach informed choices as to those who deserve their votes. Party or religious affiliations should not be the yardstick.

Rather personal merit, service and the readiness or potential to deliver on electoral promises should be the guiding principle. Ondo State deserves a new beginning. Things have to change and there are fewer ways to go about this than through a deliberate process of sieving the potential statesmen from the mere politicians or, worse yet, power profiteers. The human grain must and should be separated from the chaff. If one is to go by the popular current in the State, Ondo seems poised for a change. Now is the time to act. Use your vote wisely. Happy Easter!

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/columns/talking/tp10042007.html